Linked List: January 28, 2014

Tuesday, 28 January 2014

Apple TV Graduates From Hobby/Accessory to Product Line ★

Nice catch by Mark Gurman: Apple TV has moved to a top-level category in Apple’s online store. Until this week, it had been tucked away as an iPod accessory.

‘We’re Gonna Get Email’ ★

My pal Marco Arment joins for the first of a two-part episode of my podcast, The Talk Show. Topics include the history of the Mac, the differences between programming for the web and native apps, iPhone sales numbers, and the clear advantages of Fahrenheit over Celsius.

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Computer History Museum: The Very First ‘Stevenote’ ★

28-year-old Steve Jobs introduces the original Macintosh to the Boston Computer Society — so early in his career, he felt the need to introduce himself.

Engadget’s Pebble Steel Review: ‘At Last, a Stylish Smartwatch’ ★

Put aside for the moment whether you think Pebble Steel qualifies as a stylish man’s wristwatch. Do you think it looks like a watch most women would consider stylish? To me, the design says “man’s watch” — significantly more so than the plastic first-generation Pebble. In and of itself, that’s not necessarily a problem. The traditional watch market is segmented into men’s and women’s models. But with smartwatches, you can see the problem: women’s watches are (generally) much smaller than men’s, but how do you fit a usable display on a significantly smaller watch face?

What It’s Like to Be a Woman at a Bitcoin Meetup ★

Arianna Simpson:

I walk in and a group of people are already sitting at a long table. I say hi and hover for a second, determining where to sit. Entirely uninvited, and before I even have a chance to react, one guy proceeds to grab me by the waist and pull me into an awkward, grope-y side hug next to him on the bench. To reiterate, I’ve never met this man in my life. I try giving him the benefit of the doubt and make some quip about his being a friendly sort, but it gets uncomfortable pretty quickly when he puts his hand on my leg and leaves it there until I squirm uncomfortably.

Why Mr. Market Is Still Wrong About Apple ★

Best piece I’ve seen today on the stock market’s response to Apple’s quarterly results. Don’t miss the link to Warren Buffet’s description of Ben Graham’s “Mr. Market”.

Jared Sinclair on the Redesigned Dark Sky App ★

Jared Sinclair:

The raw idea for the redesign is good; the three-panel view with a side panel for the globe is an interesting riff on two established navigation patterns. But the execution is sloppy. It lacks clarity. It fails to shape the data into visually coherent elements. Titles are indistinguishable from content.

Of the three panels — current conditions, Next 24 Hours, and the week view — only the middle panel has a title, but in context the title is easily confused for a subhead. It took deliberate focus while preparing this post for me to recognize the purpose of all three tabs. I suspect a casual user will not undertake that much effort.

I agree with his assessment. There’s something muddled about the visual relationship between the various screens. The new map view is brilliant though.

Flag — App That Prints and Mails Your Photos for Free ★

Count me in for this new Kickstarter project from Sam Agboola:

To make photo printing fun — for the first time by our reckoning — we’ve designed a photo finishing system ready for the 21st century. Museum quality (Giclée) printers, German 220 gram photo paper from sustainable sources, laser cutters, and robots with carbon fiber arms will allow Flag to deliver prints, for free, that are better than any you can pay for today. We want to turn your memories into mementos you can be proud of.

Our secret to making photo printing free? An advertisement on the back of each print. It will always be tasteful, and we are steadfast in our commitment to never sell or share your personal information with advertisers.

Genius if they can pull it off.

‘Insanely Great’, 20th Anniversary Edition ★

New Kindle edition of Steven Levy’s seminal 1994 book on the Macintosh’s origin and first decade, with a new appendix containing Levy’s 11,000-word interview with Steve Jobs back in 1984.

Smartphone Market Share Is Not a Metric ★

Ben Evans:

There was a point in time where talking about share of smartphone sales was a meaningful and important metric. That time has passed. It’s rather like talking about Toyota’s share of sales of Japanese cars in the USA: it tells you something, and was very useful in the past, but not any more.

There are lots of issues and questions about Apple’s future, and lots of different things going on in those charts, including a clear decline in the growth of sales. But ‘smartphone share’ is not a helpful way to think about those questions.

I’ve been arguing this for years. It should have been clear to everyone as early as 2008 that soon, all mobile phones will be “smartphones”. Market share in and of itself is overrated as a primary metric — it matters, to be sure, but not as much as most observers seem to think — but what matters for the iPhone is its share of the overall mobile phone market, not its share of the “smartphone” market.

An analogy, inspired by all the recent 30th anniversary of the Mac nostalgia: what mattered for the Mac was its share of the PC market, not its share of the “GUI PC” market. It took a decade or so, but eventually all PCs were GUI PCs. That’s what we’re seeing with phones.

The Wizards of Odds ★

Nice little video from the NYT on Vegas oddsmakers and the Super Bowl.

(I’ll take Denver -2.5 and parlay on the over.)

Nilay Patel Reviews the Pebble Steel ★

The current smartwatch lineup reminds me of this situation.

The New York Filming Locations of ‘The Godfather’, Then and Now ★

Scouting NY:

Because the film is a period piece, The Godfather actually presents a fascinating record of what 1940s-era New York City locations still existed in the early-1970s. Sadly, many of them are now gone. What still remains? Let’s take a closer look.

(Via Shawn King.)